Nativity Puppet

I just thought I'd share this handy way of telling the Christmas story...get it...handy? (He-he). The whole thing is made from felt and a one-size-fits-all glove. Of course you can adjust the characters as you see fit on your own glove. It also makes a great (frugal) gift for the kiddies.

Well Fed Villagers

I must say that the stone soup activity we had this month might be my favorite make to date—definitely in the top 3!

The kids became the town villagers as they participated in telling a version of the Stone Soup story by placing pictures of veggies in our paper pot.

After that we made the real thing starting with just a few large stones. Everyone contributed by adding their own ingredient to the pot (pics don't do justice).

I have to admit, I really wasn't sure we would have enough veggies to make a substantial pot of soup but the veggies just kept coming and coming before we knew it we had a feast of a meal that was actually pretty friendly to our taste buds!

Thank you to everyone for the fabulous and tasty make!

Stone Soup

( image from etsy seller ForEvelyn)

For the make this month, I thought we could get cozy with some yummy stone soup. What is stone soup you ask? Why, it's soup make from stones of course...(and maybe a little magic sprinkled about for flavor)!

We will read a version of the story Stone Soup, which tells the fable of a small group of poor villagers who work together to build a delicious soup that ends up feeding their once starving town. After reading the story we will all participate in making our own soup starting with just a stone. Each child will have the opportunity to add their own ingredient (which they will have brought from home) to the pot.

While the soup simmers the children will either color their own "stone soup" coloring sheets or they can participate in a little free play. When the soup is ready we will all sit together for a lovely stone soup lunch date!

I will also provide bread, crackers and cheese, as a soup side—you really don't want to miss this one! See you there.

LET'S MEET: In the church kitchen, Friday the 20th of November at 11am

FEES SHMEES: In place of cash this month please bring an item or two from the grocery list below. Please prep food items if necessary (wash, cut, chop, etc).

RSVP: On or before the night of Wednesday the 18th of November please leave a comment on this post or by email (see sidebar). If possible, please share what food item you are planning to bring.

GROCERIES: If you would rather bring an item that is not on the list...that is fine too! Here are some options...

• 6 red potatoes (cut in slices about 1/4-1/2 thick)
• 3 carrots (peeled and sliced)
• 1 zucchini (sliced)
• 1 summer squash (sliced)
• 1 onion (diced)
• 3 cloves garlic (mashed through a press)
• 1 stalk celery (sliced)
• 1/2 bell pepper (sliced/diced)
• 1 cup green beans (thawed if frozen)
• 1 large tomato (chopped up)
• 1/2 cup peas (thawed if frozen)
• 1/2-1 cup corn (thawed if frozen)

Little Pearl, Little Pearl, Let Me In!

Here is a great anytime make brought to you by our friend Pearl and her mom Natalie. All kids and bunnies know that boxes make the best toys.

By the way, one day when Grammy came to visit, I learned that the container store has some great options for house making. My mom purchased 2 over sized corrugated white boxes for for Hendrix that supplied him with months of fun (you can even fold them flat for storing)! I think they were something around $5 each. So, if you haven't made any big-boxed purchases lately, and you're in the market for some kiddie real estate, check out the container store.

(photos from Natalie's original post HERE).

Pretty Pumpkin Recap

If you weren't busy eating glue then you were using it to decoupage tissue paper onto little pumpkins!

To make these at home for your autumn decor, here is Charissa's 'pretty pumpkin' recipe:

• we-be-little pumpkins which you will cover with squares of torn...
• tissue paper using...
• white glue (thinned with water) and fingers or craft sponge. Top it off with some...
• glitter (optional)

Thank you Charissa for putting on such a great autumn time make!

Paper Crafting; Spooky Style

We have been doing some Halloween paper crafts recently and below is a sampling of our efforts.

Skull and Crossbones Vertical Garlands:

These were made using 3 craft punches; a large circle, small circle and skull with crossbones. We assembled with a glue stick and craft thread. (Thread was glued between two circles, making it double sided).

This would be a great thing to hang in a doorway or better yet, use it as the backdrop for a Halloween photo booth.

Candy Corn Bunting:

No worries if you don't like candy corn—these ones are non-edible. We glued orange and yellow strips of paper on a sheet of white paper then I cut out triangle shapes. After that I smoothed the corners with a round corner punch. Before stringing all of them up on some craft thread, I went over the sides and corners of the candy shape with a brown pastel and cotton ball. Dulling down the bright card stock helped to sophisticate this embellishment just a bit—it candy corn can be sophisticated! I intentionally made this bunting from paper rather than fabric to save time but I think (even I) could have moved faster whipping it through the sewing machine had I used fabric. Oh well, fabric I didn't have and paper I did.

Halloween Badges:

The same skull and crossbones punch was used here. The rest was freehand. I basically followed a tutorial I got from HERE. It's SOOO easy and customizable by size. Wouldn't this be a cute prize to give out at a children's Halloween party? Otherwise you could use it as a little emblem to accompany your little one's costume on Halloween night. If your kids are anything like mine, they will just want to wear them around the house for fun, which is actually what we made these for very early in the month (that explains the tattered look of the ones pictured here). To make these badges wearable I hot glued a safety pin on the back. Fabric ones might be even cuter and you could use them year after year!

Projects like these are nice because I feel like they are a usable crafts, meaning they won't just go in the trash the next day and since I am definitely the one leading in tasks like these, Hendrix gets to be the 'big helper' by punching, sorting, and gluing or hold the pieces while I glue.

Innards

Okay…labeling this project with something like ‘innards’ might be a little much for the preschool variety. I suppose you can change the name of this homemade slime-like substance to ‘Halloween Goop’ or ‘Ghoulish Goo’ really anything that doesn’t cause your youngster to imagine they are rolling their fingers around in inner body sludge! I am assuming though, that they are not the ones reading this so I am going to give you a recipe for innards.

You will need two ingredients; corn starch and water (oh and food coloring if you wish). This combination creates a really neat effect, giving you a putty that is sort of in-between a liquid and a solid. I thought a video demo would do more justice than pics so I have attached one here. Don't be scared when you see how messy we are in the video, we had been playing with it for quite some time—like an hour!



I did not measure out my ingredients, I just tested until it was the right consistency but if you are particular about that sort of thing, I’m sure you can find something online. This might be fun to combine with other Halloween sensory fun like peeled grapes for eye balls or wet spaghetti for brains...you get the idea.